AFRAA’s membership represents airlines in member states of the African Union (AU), reflecting over 85% of the international traffic carried by African airlines. The association promotes the continent as “an excellent opportunity to develop air transport” and advocates for “Better Skies for Africa.” However, the continent only accounts for 2% of global trade and 3% of the world market share of air transport.
Africa’s airlines are rebounding from the pandemic, with a report by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) indicating that the traffic carried by the continent’s airlines in March had reached nearly 95% of the 2019 levels. Domestic traffic led the share at 37% of the total, followed by intercontinental traffic at 32% and passenger traffic between African states at 31%. The total number of intercontinental routes operated has been higher than in 2019 since October 2022. Eight key airports, including Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Cairo, have achieved or exceeded pre-pandemic levels for intra-Africa travel.
The AFRAA has advised that 2023 is seeing a “narrowing” of the revenue gaps of airlines compared to the previous year. Africa’s airlines were below the revenue levels seen in the same period in 2019 by 0.3 billion USD in the first quarter of 2023, and the association expects this to reduce further to 0.2 billion USD in the second quarter. Estimates for full-year revenue gaps are not yet available; however, 2023 is expected to perform better than the previous year, which saw a 3.5 billion USD loss for all African airlines.
